- Title: Rich nations 'must consign coal power to history'- UK COP26 president
- Date: 20th July 2021
- Summary: BERGHEIM, GERMANY (FILE - NOVEMBER 14, 2018) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF WIND TURBINE IN FRONT OF COAL POWER PLANT JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA (FILE) (REUTERS) EXXARO COAL MINE SHOWING DUST RISING IN BACKGROUND AFTER A BLASTING TO LOOSEN COAL UNDERGROUND MACHINE EXTRACTING COAL VIA CONVEYOR BELT FROM UNDERGROUND COAL EXCAVATOR DUMPS COAL INTO CONTAINER AT EXXARO COAL MINE
- Embargoed: 3rd August 2021 17:14
- Keywords: Alok Sharma COP26 G20 G7 carbon pricing climate change coal fossil fuels
- Location: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM / BERGHEIM, GERMANY / JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
- City: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM / BERGHEIM, GERMANY / JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
- Country: United Kingdom
- Topics: Climate Change,Climate Policy and Regulation,Environment,Europe,General News
- Reuters ID: LVA003EMS91L3
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: QUALITY AS INCOMING
FOR RELEASE AT 0030GMT
Climate change talks this year aimed at keeping global warming in check need to consign coal power to history, the British president of the upcoming United Nations conference said.
Britain will host the next U.N. climate conference, called COP26, in November in Glasgow, Scotland.
The meeting aims to spur more ambitious commitments by countries to global average temperature rise "well below" 2 degrees Celsius this century, which was agreed under the Paris Agreement in 2015, to avoid devastating effects such as more extreme weather, heatwaves, floods, and droughts.
"I've been very clear that I want COP26 to be the COP where we consign coal power to history," Alok Sharma, UK president for COP26, told journalists in an interview with Reuters and other partners of the global media consortium Covering Climate Now on Tuesday (July 20).
The Group of Seven nations in May pledged to rapidly scale up technologies and policies that accelerate the transition away from unabated coal capacity, including ending new government support for coal power by the end of this year, but many countries still finance and plan to build new coal plants.
After catastrophic floods swept across northwest Europe last week and as wildfires continue to rage across southern Oregon in the United States, energy and climate ministers of the Group of 20 rich and emerging nations (G20) will meet this week in Italy to try to increase emissions cut and climate finance pledges.
A tracker run by groups including the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) shows the G20 has committed at least $297 billion to support fossil fuel energy since the COVID-19 crisis began in early 2020.
One of the biggest challenges facing the UK's COP26 presidency will be to persuade countries to commit to more ambitious emissions cut targets and increase finance for countries most vulnerable to climate change.
Long-held disagreements over the rules which will govern how carbon markets should operate will also need to be overcome.
The rules, under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, are regarded by many countries as a way of delivering climate finance.
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